Ireland: A New Start for Ecumenical Dialogue

Written by Calin Florea

Thursday, 09 February 2006

With strong communities of foreigners, Ireland is a home for all Christian denominations. In Northern Ireland between Catholic and Protestants there’s an animosity that goes back a long time. With the arrival of Christian minorities in the Republic of Ireland, a way of dialogue and the availability for peace has increased. An input from Orthodox Romanian priest Calin Florea gives way for a new understanding of the Irish Christian habitus.

In approximately 15.000-20.000 Romanians counted by the unofficial statistics, between 8-10.000 are orthodox. The rest are Roman-Catholics from the Eastern parts of Romania and a large number of new protestants. Unfortunately, some of the Romanians newly arrived in Ireland face the great difficulty of finding a place to work; they are easily attracted by the Penticostal Church that develops social strategies in which they provide jobs and other advantages in exchange for sympathy.

Between 1.000-1.500 people are in permanent contact with the local Romanian parish in Dublin (Romanian Orthodox Parish of “The Exaltation of the Holy Cross”), but only about 250-300 individuals come for the every Sunday service. There are also around 100 Romanian Orthodox faithful going to the Greek Orthodox Church, also lead by a Romanian priest. Here, the priest, a former monk, still services twice every Sunday the Holy Liturgy, once in Romanian, even if the Mitropolite Iosif forbidded this practice very clearly (in the Orthodox canonical Law, it is forbidden anyway to have two or more Liturgies on the same althar, n. r.).

The Irish have a past related to the Church. The elderly are always reverent towards priests. The youngsters, influenced by the recent scandals involving pedophilia have a strong moderation, sometimes evolving in aversion, towards clergy in general. Most of them are Catholics (80%), 12% are Anglicans, the rest Protestants, new protestants etc. The relation between State and Church is still strong; for example, a wedding registered in the Church is recognized by the civil law.

Ireland ecumenical relations are under the authority of the Dublin Council of Churches (DCC, at the local level) and the Irish Council of Churches (ICC, at national level, www.irishchurches.org/) trying to make connections between Christians, but in Ireland's Christians are more close to indifference, except the elderly (aging between 45-70 years).

For the complete list of parishes and Churches of the Romanian Patriarchate, see www.mitropolia-paris.ro/?subject=parohii/index⟨=fr.

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